Beckhams settle libel case with newspaper

The England soccer captain had been seeking libel damages against the News of the World newspaper over an article that carried the headline: "Posh and Becks on the Rocks."

It had been expected that the case would be heard before a judge and jury at London's High Court after the soccer World Cup, taking place in Germany in June.

"The defamation proceedings brought by David and Victoria Beckham against the News of the World have been resolved on a confidential basis," the couple's spokeswoman, Jo Milloy, said in a statement on Thursday.

Lawyers for Beckham, 30, and his wife, 31, formerly known as Posh Spice of the Spice Girls, told a pretrial hearing last October that the couple would contest claims that they were maintaining a false image of a happy marriage to protect their financial interests.

Hugh Tomlinson, lawyer for the Beckhams, argued that his clients had been defamed by the Sunday tabloid newspaper and said there was no truth in the story.

Last August, Beckham accepted damages from British tabloid The People over an article that falsely accused him of making hate calls to a former nanny.

"The defamation proceedings brought by David and Victoria Beckham against the News of the World have been resolved on a confidential basis. There will be no further comment," the newspaper's managing editor Stuart Kuttner said in a statement.